Thursday, 8 May 2014

World powers join search for abducted Nigerian schoolgirls

Members of civil society groups shout slogans to protest the abduction
of Chibok school girls during a rally pressing for the girls' release in
Abuja on May 6, 2014, ahead of World Economic Forum.

An urgent international effort to help Nigeria find more than
200 girls kidnapped by Islamist militants is focused on providing
intelligence as experts try to locate the hostages.

Amid
global outrage over the kidnapping, the United States, France and
Britain are sending specialist teams to Nigeria, which said London had
agreed to deploy "satellite imaging capabilities."

China
promised to supply "any useful information acquired by its satellites
and intelligence services," according to President Goodluck Jonathan
after talks with visiting Chinese premier Li Keqiang.

Extremists
from the Boko Haram group seized a first group of schoolgirls in
Nigeria's volatile northeast three weeks ago, saying they were holding
them as "slaves" and threatening to sell them.

The
militants have since kidnapped more girls in the area and attacked a
village, massacring scores of civilians. The violence and mass abduction
has triggered worldwide anger.

Western governments
divulged few details about the precise type of support offered to
Nigeria but officials said intelligence from satellite imagery and
possibly drone surveillance aircraft would be a crucial element.

Washington
plans to send a team of fewer than 10 military personnel as well as
specialists from the Justice Department and the FBI, US officials said.

"We're
moving swiftly to put in place a team at our embassy in Abuja that can
provide military, law enforcement and information-sharing assistance in
support of Nigeria's efforts to find and free the girls," State
Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. The United States,
which like France flies Reaper drones out of Niamey in Nigeria's
neighbor Niger, would not confirm if surveillance aircraft were part of
the package of assistance.

"We're discussing with the
Nigerian government any type of information sharing arrangements that we
can agree to," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said.

US MILITARY

Defense
officials acknowledged the US military had relatively weak ties with
Nigeria and unlike many other African states, the government in Abuja
has shown little interest in major training programs.

"In
the past, the Nigerians have been reluctant to accept US assistance,
particularly in areas having to do with security," said John Campbell,
former US ambassador to Nigeria.

"Whatever assistance
we might provide and might be welcomed by the Nigerian side is likely to
be essentially technical," Mr Campbell said.

Satellite
imagery and other technological surveillance would likely represent
Washington's primary contribution, said Brian Jenkins of the Rand
Corporation think tank, a former Green Beret who used to work as an
adviser for companies facing hostage situations.

At the moment, the main task is to track down where the girls are being held, he told AFP.

"The
first job is to locate where they may be. Are they all assembled in a
single area that can be identified? Or have they already been
scattered?" he said.

The United States also could
advise Nigeria if it tried to negotiate with the kidnappers, as could
the teams from France and Britain, which have experience with hostage
situations, he added.

DRONES

With
two drones based in Niger as well as troops and aircraft deployed in
Chad and Benin, France is well-placed to help track the militants that
operate throughout the area, analysts said.

"It's an
area we know well and where our intelligence services are active," said
Eric Denece, director of the French Center for Research on Intelligence.

French
support also presents a chance "to return a favor" to Nigeria, which
helped in the release of French hostages abducted in Cameroon by Boko
Haram, said defense expert Pierre Servent.

Some US
lawmakers have suggested staging a rescue mission, but Western officials
made clear there was no plan at the moment to organize such a dangerous
operation.

"This is not something where the US has
some magic. This isn't a rescue of a captain and his crew on a ship in
the Indian Ocean," Mr Jenkins said.

"The idea that the
US will just intervene and send in commandos and bring these girls
back. . . I wish that were the case, he said."

"History suggests this could be turn out to be a long affair."

British
commandos joined Nigerian forces on a failed rescue operation in March
2012 in the northern city of Sokoto in which two hostages, a Briton and
an Italian, were killed by their captors.